As coronavirus lockdown restrictions are slowly easing around the world, people are preparing to go back to work, which can be daunting. Whether you are an artist, curator, work in a museum or an auction house, to ease your worries here are a list of movies that will make you feel nostalgic for your previous work life and help you to ease your way back.
Mickey Blue Eyes
Mickey Blue Eyes is a 1999 romantic comedy crime film directed by Kelly Makin (currently showing on Netflix.) Hugh Grant stars as Michael Felgate, an English auctioneer who manages the Cromwell auction house living in New York City who becomes entangled in his soon-to-be father-in-law’s mafia connections. Expect money laundering scams at Michael’s auction house and a hilarious run in with the competitors, Sotheby’s.
Velvet Buzzsaw
In this supernatural thriller, Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Morf Vandewalt, alongside an icy gallery owner and an ambitious assistant snap up a recently deceased artist’s stash. However, the $5-a-word art critic who can make or break careers with a single review (Gyllenhaal modelled the character after Jerry Saltz) faces dire consequences. Yes, it is a comedy, but it will make you secretly miss your sassy colleagues and the feeling of being at an art fair for sure.
Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World
Blurred Lines : Inside the Art World is an overview of the major players in the contemporary art market and of the economic factors that motivate those individuals and institutions.
Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film
Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film is a 2010 British documentary film, directed by street artist Banksy. It tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in LA, and his love with street art.
The Price of Everything
This film allowed you to dive into the complex world of contemporary art, where everything can be bought and sold. The Price of Everything is a stunning depiction of the role of art in today’s consumerist society.
The cool school
Narrated by Jeff Bridges, this documentary is about the rise of the Los Angeles art scene in the ‘50s – ‘60s as a counter-culture to the New York Abstract Expressionist Movement.
Herb & Dorothy
‘Herb and Dorothy’ is an wonderful documentary about Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who are an unassuming art collecting couple, who amassed over 4000 works of art in a 45-year period.
Gerhard Richter: Painting
This film allows us entry into the artistic process of Gerhard Richter, one of the best-selling artists in the world today. Through beautiful insightful behind-the-scenes footage of Richter in his studio and exclusive interviews with the artist and some of his contemporaries and critics, you slowly understand how his artistic practices emerge.
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present
‘Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present’ tracks the performance artist and her journey while preparing her large retrospective at the MoMA in 2010. The movie explores the nature of performance art and Abramovic’s important role as the ‘grandmother’ of the movement, as well as questions such as ‘why is this art?’
National Gallery
‘National Gallery’ offers a wonderful look at the behind-the-scenes of one of the UK’s most famous art collections – the National Gallery in London.
The First Monday in May
The film follows the creation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s most attended fashion exhibit in history: the 2015 art exhibition China: Through the Looking Glass by curator Andrew Bolton at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
KUSAMA – INFINITY
This movie is a portrait of 89-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and her legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry and literary fiction.
Frida
Frida, portrayed by Salma Hayek, is a film that follows the private and professional life of famed Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
Mona Lisa Smile
Non-conformist teacher art teacher played by Julia Roberts, lectures on the subject of art history in UCLA,in the 1950s, while encouraging students to pursue their dreams and question the roles women are expected to play in society.
Big Eyes
In the late 1950s and early ’60s, artist Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) achieves crazy fame and success with portraits of large eyed women. However, no one realizes that his wife, Margaret (Amy Adams), is the real painter behind the brush.
Factory Girl
Factory Girl gives a cinematic insight into the famous Factory, which is of course Andy Warhol’s celebrated studio, as seen through the life and work of Edie Sedgwick.
The Square
Disaster strikes when a curator hires a public relations team to build some hype for his renowned Swedish museum. Tackling topics of political correctness and freedom of speech in the art world in a satirical way, the movie won the prestigious Palme d’Or award.
